The East Tennessee State Buccaneers men's basketball team represents East Tennessee State University (ETSU), located in Johnson City, Tennessee, in men's college basketball. East Tennessee State is coached by Desmond Oliver and currently competes in the Southern Conference. The team last played in the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament in 2017. In March 2020 the Buccaneers won the SoCon championship. History East Tennessee State been playing Division I basketball since the 1958–59 season when they joined the Ohio Valley Conference. In the 1979–80 season ETSU joined the Southern Conference and after the 2004–05 season they left the Southern Conference for the Atlantic Sun Conference. On July 1, 2014, they re-joined the Southern Conference. Season-by-season results Season-by-season results The Les Robinson / Alan LeForce era Commonly referred to as "The Glory Days" of ETSU basketball, between 1989 and 1992, ETSU won 4 straight Southern Conference titles while compiling 99 wins. During this 4-year period ETSU had wins over prestigious programs such as Arizona, NC State (3 times), Wake Forest, Cincinnati, BYU, Xavier, Mississippi State, Southern Miss, Tennessee (twice) and Memphis. ETSU also suffered their most famous loss when they lost by 1 point to top ranked Oklahoma as a 16th seed in the 1989 NCAA tournament. When Les Robinson left for NC State after the 1990 season, longtime assistant Alan Leforce took over a veteran team led by Senior Keith "Mister" Jennings. The team was ranked as high as 10th in the nation during the 1991 season and finished the year 17th in the AP poll and 15th in the Coaches poll. In the 1992 NCAA tournament ETSU upset the Arizona Wildcats in the opening round, but eventually fell in the second round to the Michigan Wolverines and the Fab Five. The Buccaneers went into steep decline after that, bottoming out with a 7-20 record in 1995-96. LeForce resigned after the season. The Ed Dechellis era In 1996 Ed Dechellis replaced Alan Leforce who resigned after the 1995–1996 season. In 2001 Dechellis led ETSU to their first regular season conference title since the 91–92 season. In 2003 Dechellis helped ETSU win their first Southern Conference Tournament title and first NCAA berth since 1992. ETSU faced Wake Forest University in the first round where they lost in the final seconds 73–76 after having a chance to win the game with the last shot. After the 2003 season Dechellis left for Penn